Science

Since 2007, the Ithaka Institute has developed standards, technologies, and scientific concepts that helped turn biochar into the largest operational method for carbon dioxide removal. Along the way, the partnerships behind this work grew into a global scientific community - researchers, engineers, farmers, and certifiers who together built an industry that did not exist two decades ago. Here are 13 milestones that probably mattered most.

The Ithaka Institute has been at the centre of biochar research and development since 2007 — from the first European field trial to the concepts and methods that became industry standard. 

Biochar is not just a soil amendment - it is an engineered carbon material. The institute develops biochar-based construction materials that turn buildings into carbon sinks, and NanoC nano-carbon composites that won snowboard World Cup races.

In 2014, the Ithaka Institute developed the Kon-Tiki — an open-fire deep-cone kiln that produces high-quality biochar with no external energy, no electronics, and no industrial infrastructure. 

The Ithaka Institute's roots lie in viticulture. The first European biochar field trial was established in a vineyard — Mythopia Alpine in the Swiss Valais — in 2007, and vineyards have remained the institute's primary long-term research sites ever since. 

The Ithaka Institute publishes its scientific results in peer-reviewed journals across the fields of biochar science, carbon dioxide removal, pyrolysis technology, agronomy, and material science. Many of these publications have directly shaped the technical foundations of certification standards - from contaminant thresholds and analytical methods to carbon sink quantification and system boundary definitions.